Journal — Grifco Industries

Hi Dave,

In answer to your question, the music creation process for me is all just a big, beautiful mess! There’s rarely a clear separation between music creation, endless tweaking of what’s been created, and mixing the whole time. That makes it hard to say what I spend the most time on. But I guess I’d have to say it’s the “auditioning” of songs - - in the car, in my headphones, at work, at home, on the computer, etc. I do a lot of listening to my music - - in various environments, on different equipment, probably for several hours a day - - to make sure it’s gonna sound good in as many places as possible. I’m always finding elements of the song that I want to tweak for the next version of it.

Here’s the thing: I create music totally for fun, not for money. That may change in the future, but for now, there are no deadlines attached to my music. So making a song better can be a never-ending process....

Deidra,

Two years ago, I took a workshop led by a coworker, Javier Pena, called “Leader of the Band.” It was a one-day class that basically used the theme of leading a band of musicians to explain the idea form of leadership and teamwork at ALSAC. It was essentially a typical “team-building exercise.” But the reason I signed up—and what made the class interesting beyond just being a work thing—was the musical aspect of the class.

Javier has a musical background, and he’s an accomplished bandleader himself. He even claims he can tell a lot about person just from the type of music they listen to. In fact, at the end of the class, Javier challenged us to bring him three of our favorite songs, and he would then tell us what kind of personality we had. I took him up on this challenge, and I provided the three songs below. Although, the way I presented the songs likely gave him an unfair advantage.

Instead of just listing the songs, I could not resist writing a short paragraph about how each one made me feel. In other words, I turned it into an exercise in “music writing”—as you know by now is one of my favorite things to do. Read the descriptions, then listen to the songs for yourself, and let me know if they make you feel the same way. Enjoy!

Terry